Our approach is underpinned by the following 3 principles that apply to all social care inspections:
Minor amends to the guidance on case tracking to make it consistent with the adoption support agencies and independent fostering agencies SCCIF guidance. Guidance also added to the Inadequate judgements: next steps section on feeding back to local authorities.
Updated the guidance for inspectors on recording evidence in the inspection database.
Minor edits for clarity in the 'Timeframe' and 'Monitoring visit' sections. Revised text referencing the updated 'Ofsted code of conduct' policy.
Added updated SCCIF for April 2022: additional guidance for when inspectors discover possible unregistered provision.
Updated guidance on the scheduling of inspections of agencies previously judged inadequate or requires improvement to be good, to make this consistent with our guidance on all adoption and fostering agency inspections.
Added guidance on inspecting voluntary adoption agencies during COVID-19 restrictions. Updated guidance to reflect the changes to Ofsteds post-inspection processes and complaints handling (including the timeline) that we introduced in September 2020. Updated the 'Frequency of inspection' section to include a rolling 3-year inspection programme. Minor edits for readability.
First published.